Natural thumb zone on smartphone with one-handed interaction: Effects of thumb length and screen size

Hyo Chang Kim, Yong Gu Ji

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating natural thumb zone of the user in smartphone touchscreen with one-handed grip. The subjects were divided into three groups according to their thumb lengths: small, medium, large. Experiments were carried out using three smartphones of different sizes: 4.7 in., 5.1 in., 5.2 in. The natural thumb zone of each group was analyzed using heat-map method. In large group, the thumb zone occupied more than 50% of the touch screen, while small and medium groups occupied only about 30% in all smartphones of different sizes. Compare to other groups, the thumb zone ratio of the small group in 5.2 in. smartphone was found greatly reduced. The lowermost region and the upper-left region of the smartphone touchscreen are not commonly included in natural thumb zone, regardless of the thumb-length groups. The results of this study could be used for designing new mobile device to enhance the usability of one-handed interaction; small devices with a touch screen as well.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018) - Volume VII
Subtitle of host publicationErgonomics in Design, Design for All, Activity Theories for Work Analysis and Design, Affective Design
EditorsSebastiano Bagnara, Riccardo Tartaglia, Sara Albolino, Thomas Alexander, Yushi Fujita
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages471-477
Number of pages7
ISBN (Print)9783319960708
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2019
Event20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association, IEA 2018 - Florence, Italy
Duration: 2018 Aug 262018 Aug 30

Publication series

NameAdvances in Intelligent Systems and Computing
Volume824
ISSN (Print)2194-5357

Other

Other20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association, IEA 2018
Country/TerritoryItaly
CityFlorence
Period18/8/2618/8/30

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019.

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • General Computer Science

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